Process for salvaging bowling pin forms



United States Patent 2,721,590 PROCESS FOR SALVAGING BOWLING PIN FORMS Alphonse J. Giese, Fort Thomas, Ky., assignor to Vulcan Corporation, Portsmouth, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application April 21, 1953, Serial No. 350,144

3 Claims. (Cl. 144309) This invention relates to a method of salvaging bowling pin forms and is particularly directed to a method for making first class bowling pins from otherwise unusable defective forms.

Hidden defects are frequently discovered in wooden bowling pin forms after they have been dried and then rough turned in a lathe. Most of the defects were found to occur on either the bark side or on the heart side of these unfinished rough turned bowling pin forms, i. e. in the face grain of the wood comprising said defective forms. Quite frequently the defects in the face grain of the forms were so deeply seated that the forms could only be discarded for lack of any known method of utilizing such defective forms for making acceptable bowling pins. According to the prime object of the present method these defective forms are not only economically employed but are manipulated in a novel manner to produce first class bowling pins having greatly improved characteristics in use.

Another object of the invention is to provide a method of making improved bowling pins which includes the steps of cutting defective bowling pin forms in a particular way and the subsequent assembly of certain of the severed, bowling pin sections in a prearranged manner to provide oversize forms from which the pins can be turned.

Further objects of the invention will be apparent from the following specification taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing which is illustrative of the steps of said process.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is an elevational view of a defective bowling pin looking directly into one of its face grain sides.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged section taken on line 2-2 of Fig. l and showing in broken lines the plane of one longitudinal saw cut that is to be passed through some of the defective bowling pin forms.

Fig. 3 shows an alternative manner of cutting other defective bowling pin forms according to my method.

Fig. 4 is an elevation of a composite, unfinished pin form made from clear sections obtained by the sectionalizing saw cuts illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3.

Fig. 5 is an elevation of a complete bowling pin turned down from the composite, unfinished pin form shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a section taken on line 6-6 of Fig. 5 illustrating the disposition of wood grains of the sections and of the filler in the finished bowling pin.

Figs. 7 and 8 are views similar to Fig. 6 showing modified bowling pin forms made by this process.

With reference to Figs. 1 and 2 this process has to do with defective bowling pin forms 8 that have one or more deep seated defects 9 in their face grains 10. As best shown in Figs. 2 and 3 the defect extends in the direction of the wood grain, its two ends terminating in the face of the pin form. Additionally the defects are so deep seated as to have heretofore made these defective forms absolutely useless for the manufacture of bowling pins. The defects 9 most generally occur in the face 2,721,590 Patented Oct. 25, 19 55 grain of these defective pin forms because the said face grain sides are formed of wood from either the bark or heart side of the block of wood that is taken from the log, and it is these sides which are attacked by fungus growths that are so deep seated in the respective bowling pin forms that they must be discarded as useless.

It is the particular step in the present process to bisect defective pin forms of the character set out above by passing a planar saw cut through the longitudinal centers of each of a plurality of forms in a particular alternating manner. With reference to Figs. 2 and 3. it is assumed that all the bowling pin forms to be handled in this process are manually fed toward the saw from the sawyer, head end first and belly part last with the defective face grain side uppermost. The numeral 11 in Fig. 2 represents a planar saw cut'passed through the longitudinal center of the defective pin form 8 to the right-hand side of the defective portion 9 therein corresponding, to the sawyers right-hand side, thus forming what is termed herein as a right section 12 of clear wood and a discardable section 13 containing all the defects. Now with reference to Fig. 3 another pin form 13 having defects 14, similar to the ones in the pin form 8, is bisected by passing a planar saw cut 15 through the longitudinal center of the form to the left-hand side of the defect 14, thus forming a so-called left section" 16 of clear wood and a discardable section 17 containing all the defects. The left and right sections are segregated by placing each kind of section in an individual bin. Preferably the same number of right sections" and left sections are to be made from a particular lot of defective bowling pin forms, an equal count of the two kinds of sections being maintained by the sawyer through the expedient of alternately cutting opposite sections from successive pin forms and placing them immediately into their respective bins located on the right and on the left sides of the sawing table.

The next step in this process is to make a number of composite, unfinished bowling pin forms like that indicated by the reference numeral 18 in Fig. 4, said forms comprising two right sections 1212 of clear wood adhesively secured to opposed major faces of a clear wood filler 19. In like manner two left sections 16-16 of clear wood can also be secured to a clear wood filler 19 to provide a composite pin form having the characteristics of the unfinished bowling pin form 18. It is also contemplated that a right section 12 and a left section 16 may be secured to the opposite major faces of a filler 19 with the result illustrated in Fig. 8 wherein the grains of the sections will be inclined in opposite directions with respect to the filler to provide a chevron grain design in lateral section through the finished bowling pin. The composite pin form 18 is of clear wood throughout and is oversize with respect to the contour of a finished bowling pin 20 to be turned therefrom, said bowling pin being illustrated in Fig. 5 and shown in broken lines in Fig. 4.

As best shown in Figs. 6, 7 and 8 the securing together of two right sections, two left sections or a left section and a right section on opposite sides of a filler to provide a composite pin form from which a bowling pin is to be turned produces a final bowling pin 20 which presents a maximum of edge grain and a minimum of face grain to the surface of the pin. It will be noted that the filler panel 19 in each of the composite forms shown in Figs. 6-8 inclusive presents all edge grain to the surface of its respective pin form and that at least sixty-five per cent of the exposed surfaces of the two sections for each form present edge grain to the pin surface thereby obtaining an improved pin having an impact surface comprised of approximately seventy-five per cent edge grain. The only difference between making a pin from the two right sections 1212 and of two left sections 17-17 is clearly illustrated by comparing the showings in Figs. 6 and 7 wherein it will be seen that the general direction of inclination of grain of the two sections in each form are slanted in opposite directions, both forms having the same percentage of edge grain presented around their contour surfaces. As has been stated a bowling pin made from a right section" and a left section (Fig. 8) is comparable to the pins shown in Figs. 6 and 7 because it too presents at least seventy-five (75%) per cent edge grain at its outer surface.

What is claimed is:

l. A process for salvaging partially completed bowling pin forms containing face grain defects which consists in passing planar saw cuts through the axes of said forms and closely to one side of the defects to divide each of said forms into a defective section and a clear section having its grain inclined with respect to its cut planar face, discarding the defective sections, adhesively securing pairs of those clear sections on opposed major faces of individual fillers to form oversize composite bowling pin forms, and then turning bowling pins from the said composite forms.

2. A process for salvaging partially completed bowling pin forms containing face grain defects which consists in passing planar saw cuts through the axes of said forms and closely to one side of the defects to divide each of said forms into a defective section and a clear section having its grain inclined with respect to its cut planar face, discarding the defective sections, adhesively securing pairs of those clear sections on opposed major faces of individual fillers with the grains of the paired sections in substantial parallelism to form oversize composite bowling pin forms, and then turning bowling pins from the said composite forms.

3. A process for salvaging partially completed bowling pin forms containing face grain defects which consists in passing planar saw cuts through the axes of said forms and closely to one side of the defects to divide each of said forms into a defective section and a clear section having its grain inclined with respect to its out planar face, discarding the defective sections, adhesively securing pairs of those clear sections on opposed major faces of individual fillers with the grains of the paired sections inclined with respect to each other to form oversize composite bowling pin forms, and then turning bowling pins from the said composite forms.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,418,546 Eastman June 6, 1922 1,778,333 Neumann Oct. 14, 1930 2,303,480 Lipic, Jr Dec. 1, 1942 2,303,895 Owen Dec. 1, 1942 2,395,134 McKenzie Feb. 19, 1946 2,634,774 Francar Apr. 14, 1953 

